Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration

by Fergus Fleming

Book Overview

On John Franklin's 1820 expedition to find the North-West Passage, Michel Teroahaute cannibalized two team members and was preparing a third when he was caught and killed. When Rene la Salle set off... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871138999
• ISBN13: 9780871138996
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Length: 518 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

The best book about world explorers that you can find.

Off the Map is a wonderfll book. It is basically a summary of world exploration from Marco Polo in 1271 to Umberto Nobile in 1928. There are separate chapters about each explorer, all arranged in chronological order with each chapter about 10-20 pages each. The chapter lengths are just right in that they are not too long, but also not lacking for detailed information. Each chapter also has a map that illustrates where the particular explorer travelled, which was extremely helpful. There are also 3 separate sections of illustrations and photos which helps give a visual picture of the explorers. Overall, this book is packed with information and is written in such a way that each chapter is told like a story and each story takes you back in time to a different era. If you are intertested in world exploration or world history, then this book is a must read. I enjoyed it very much.

Outstanding tales of Exploration

If you love reading about exploration and adventure, this is the book for you! Fergus Fleming is one of the best story tellers when it comes to relating tales of man's greatest efforts in the world of exploration. This is an easy read, covering many different stories from Marco Polo to Ernest Shackleton. Virtually all parts of the world are covered from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from the Jungles to the Deserts. Each story is unique and written in a style that will capture you and put you right along side the explorer. The accounts are short but quite inclusive of the important points. If anything, they will peak your interest to read a more detailed account of those stories the reader finds particularly interesting. Truly, a great book and one of Fleming's best!

Perhaps "An encyclopedia of exploration" would be a better title

I expected this book to be the advertised "tales" of exploration, but I think that doesn't do justice to the depth of detail and research in the content. Rather than describe how far someone went and how cold it was there, he excerpts explorers' journals and gives a feel for the degree of pain and suffering of the journey, as well as what the exploration did or did not accomplish in scientific or imperialistic terms. In one memorable Antarctic exploration chapter, for example, Fleming relates how the explorer's skin peeled off in a truly horrific manner (you can't even imagine) as related in his journals. Fleming then goes on to theorize on the cause of the condition (eating his sled dog's liver) and why this did not happen to other adventurers in the Antarctic. There are dozens and dozens of individual stories in this book, and I'm amazed at how many of the tiny details are still imprinted in my brain. They'll make great campfire stories sometime. On the other hand, "encyclopedia" doesn't sound like "fun read," and this book truly is. I'd highly recommend it to those who enjoy richly detailed yet thoroughly engaging stories of great adventure, risk, and near (or often, total) death.

A Very Nice Way to Learn History

Fergus Fleming is a "narrative historian." "I can't conceive of writing it any other way," the recently deceased Shelby Foote once said. "Narrative history is the kind that comes closest to telling the truth. You can never get to the truth, but that's your goal." As a narrative historian, Mr. Fleming writes of history almost as he would a novel. He doesn't footnote every fact, he doesn't quote every statement anyone said. He writes the history as a story, an interesting story. In the bibliography at the back he says, "it seems redundant to itemize every letter, every diary, every scrap of archive material. The following is a list of books that I have found most directly helpful." From these books, and probably a lifetime of accumulated historical knowledge, Mr. Fleming tells the tale here of the discoverers who ventured "Off the Map." The tales range from the time of the Renaissance through the 1920's when the intenal combusion engine changed all the rules. He covers the famous like Marco Polo, Columbus, Cook, Lewis and Clark. He also covers a series of others that may have escaped your attention in the past such as Ibn Battuta, Umberto Nobile, and Carl Weyprecht. Entertaining reading and even hearing the old stories retold is enjoyable in Mr. Fleming's writing style.

A Great Read

Hard to believe, but I couldn't put this book down! It consists of a number of vignettes, each a story of exploration. The majority seem to involve polar exploration - Northwest Passage and all that - with a fair number set in Africa, as well. Though I've read whole books on a few of these stories, in most cases a book might be too much, especially for those of us with too many books on the to-read list. The writing is excellent. (I must say, though, that I was disappointed when I read that Stanley, rather than searching all over the heart of Africa, found Livingstone in the first place that he looked!)